Already over the edge?

Dec. 14, 2012

George Plumb

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

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George Plumb, the executive director of Montpelier-based nonprofit Vermonters for Sustainable Population, is certain of at least two things: 1. An overabundance of people is the state’s (and the world’s) primary environmental issue; and 2. It is folly to ignore overpopulation, even in bucolic Vermont.

He spoke with the Burlington Free Press recently in a phone interview.

Burlington Free Press: How are you focusing your concerns?

George Plumb: Modestly. We’re just a small, grassroots organization without any paid staff. I devote most of my time as a retiree working on environmental issues.

BFP: What kind of work do you do?

GP: We do a lot of education, a lot of letters to the editors (including to the Burlington Free Press). This year we’re going promote the showing of the “Hooked on Growth” movie.

BFP: Have you determined the point at which human population growth gets out of whack with the rest of the planet?

GP: Some growth is good. You can grow stronger, more resilient. But I’m very wary of the addition of more people to the landscape.

BFP: What first alerted you to this?

GP: I lived on Susie Wilson Road from 1963 to 1968. It was total country at that point. We used to snowmobile, hunt, tramp, walk in the woods — it was wonderful. And then there was a job change, and I moved to Washington, Vermont. I’d go back occasionally to see what the old home looked.

I was amazed. It kept getting more and more developed — and I kept asking myself: What’s going on here? Why is this happening? Then I had the “a-ha!” moment: Oh, it’s population growth!

BFP: How did your advocacy develop after that?

GP: I really didn’t become active until the early 1990s, when I began to see this is really a major concern. Then three of us got together and formed Vermont Citizens for a Sustainable Population.

BFP: Have you arrived at a ballpark figure for Vermont’s optimum population?

GP: I have come up with an estimate. It is that a sustainable population would be approximately two-thirds of what it is now (down to 416,600, from the current 626,000).

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That’s based on the fact when we were living somewhat sustainably in the late 1890s and early 1900s, the population was about half of what it is now.

You could go back (for a target population) before we used much fossil fuels, when many more people grew their own food.

I also factor in the decline of fossil fuels, and the contribution of renewable energy.

BFP: How much have fossil fuels driven population growth?

GP: Well, the first driver was agriculture — after people had been hunter-gatherers for a long time. Somewhat sustainable agriculture changed to industrialized agriculture, fossil-fuel-based agriculture, and that really jacked up the population. And it keeps on growing. Meanwhile, we’re running out of water, running out of arable land.

BFP: Do you have any ideas about how Chittenden County might slow or reverse its growth?

GP: Well, there’s no doubt that, globally, the population is going to crash sometime in the next 10, 20, 50, 100 years — it’s just unsustainable, and there will be tremendous suffering and tremendous pain when that happens. ...

GP: The U.S. will probably be among the last to really feel that. We’re in pretty good shape economically, and not nearly as overcrowded as other countries. In Vermont, we have to define for ourselves what is a sustainable population — not just sustainable, but one that supports a quality of life.

BFP: What’s stopping us?

GP: What’s slowing us down is that most of the environmental groups are reluctant to discuss population. ... We have a dominant “growth culture,” which says we have to grow forever.

But that culture is out of date. It worked in the ’50s and ’60s, but it’s no longer serving us. Established environmental groups don’t want to come up against the growth culture. It’s a conspicuous absence.

BFP: It sounds like a debate might be in order.

GP: I’ve been working towards that. It’s a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed: Population growth is not good for the local environment, and it’s not good for the global environment.

And from the quality-of-life standpoint, a population increase is not going to make the people of Chittenden County any happier.